Nowadays skiing in Ukraine is not just stylish but also truly comfortable and safe! For that purpose authorities of Ukraine’s largest ski resort “Bukovel” for already 11 years constantly develops the infrastructure and aims to please the desires of the most exacting customers.
We have the ski school working where everyone can find the suitable training course.
Ski school celebrates its birthday together with ski resort “Bukovel” so now its 11. Its formative stage was quite uneasy. First of all ski school means the perfect service, as for our guests, who can’t ski or board so far, the crucial thing is somebody should teach them how to do it properly. Our qualified trainers will teach you ski fast and safely. In a short time our customers will get the maximum of helpful information. Now our ski school is not just the training complex, it also develops many-sidedly. Ski school manager Andriy Pilleroa told us how it started and his plans for the future.
- Andriy, please tell us how everything started?
- The idea of ski school and first steps of its development is the mere achievement of the actual director of ski resort “Bukovel” Olexandr Shevchenko. Since the first year of the resort work he started lessons in the ski school. When the first ski lift started operating the ski school started its work as well. Olexandr Leonidovych personally recruited ski instructors, trained them in customer services. First year only three ski instructors and one trainer of snowboarding worked in our ski school.
- And how many instructors work in you ski school now?
- As I said it started with only four instructors but the last season we ran the training courses for 450 ski instructors. Our trainers gladly learn and implement in practice foreign methods of skiing and snowboarding teaching. Each year our ski school enlarges the list of services offered including skills mastering or new services such as ski guide instructor, photo- and video recording, corporate training. Traditionally when each season starts we make training courses for our instructors, even for our permanent workers to refresh their knowledge and skills. Traditionally afterwards our instructors may start working only if they pass tests. Over 300 instructors were working in our ski school at the same time. The increased number of ski trainers is the result of the resort growth as without it we would never had the ski school development.
- What is the pattern of ski school “Bukovel” of 2012?
- Ski school is not only the training complex. We strive to develop our range of activities. For instance, now the preparation for Olympic Games 2022 is one of our work trends. Mogul trail construction, competitions in such Olympic discipline as skycrossing, slopestyle, freestyle, aerial skiing are the pre-conditions of conducting the Olympic Games in 2022. Ski school pays great attention to infant ski sector. We run classes for children from Yaremche region free of charge. For those children who can visit training courses every day we specially invited the coach, participant of two Olympic Games, who daily teaches these children and trains for Ukrainian and international competitions. Children get ready to Olympic Games and they are mostly focused on Olympic disciplines namely Giant slalom, Special slalom, Mogul, Slopestyle.
- Do you see considerable results with these children and what are the ski school activities in summer?
- This year ourchildren won the medal places in all-Ukrainian competitions. This specialized school worked during last two years and we believe this sports club will grow into the School of Olympic Reserve. The school works all the year round. In winters we give skiing and snowboarding classes, in summers we develop the work schedule of sports and recreation camp “Bukovel” which works in “Bukovel” since 2010. We usually invite our ski trainer to work in this children’s camp. Thus our school created work places for its staff even in summers. We are constantly developing, for instance ski school “Bukovel” opened its branches in six other ski centers of Ukraine: ski resorts “Vyshora”, “Vodyanyky”, “Izki”, “Gorbovo”, “Lavyna”, “Play”.
- Apart from ski classes Tourist Complex “Bukovel” also run number of competitions of various levels. Which of them were the most important?
- We are preparing all of them very responsibly, it’s hard to separate the most important as they all have different purposes. Quite important for us are “Bukovel Kid’s Cup” competitions where participants are children from all parts of Ukraine and our ski students starting from the age of eight. The Competitions were held in three stages and as each stage passed we observed the progress in Ukrainian sportsmen and students of “Bukovel” ski school level of skills. We also had lots of competitions of various levels, for example, Yana Klochkova Cup, where little children of three and more years old took part. This year we initiated and organized the university competitions for students of Ukrainian high schools. Sorry to say it was in oblivion before for more than 10 years. The idea of revive the high schools students competitions was supported by the official from the Ministry of Education of Ukraine and we already have plans to run the large-scale all-Ukrainian Student Games in February 2013.
– What other competitions were on the trails of “Bukovel”?
– WethesupportofDepartmentoffreestylingofUkraineweorganized the Cup of Ukraine and the Championship of Ukraine in Mogul – one of the Olympic disciplines. Over 400 sportsmen participated in these competitions. By the way, the mogul trail in “Bukovel” is the only one in Ukraine where sportsmen can train for international competitions. During last several days ski resort “Bukovel” is the ground for Europe Cup in freestyling and aerial skiing. We plan to receive the stage of World Cup in the nearest future. Every year we have the competitions in such Olympic discipline as slopestyle. Skiers and snowboarders of 14-22 are allowed to participate. Actually it’s a separate category of sportsmen who prefer skiing in snowparks. They enjoy ski jumps, freestyling, various acrobatic figures.
– To run the high-level competitions you should have the most important constituent part – trails quality and proficiency is their construction. Who prepares the trails for competitions in “Bukovel”?
- It depends from the discipline of competitions. For example, there are no professionals in Ukraine to construct the snowpark properly and it’s unlikely someone could have made it fast and with high standards. So we had to invite the American specialist who had already constructed many snowparks in Canada, USA and European ski resorts. To construct the mogul trail we usually invite our Ukrainian sportsman from Ivano-Frankivsk Sergiy Chmil who is the participant on international competitions fro already four years and now he collects points to participate in the World Championship and Olympic Games 2014 in Sochi. To construct the slalom trail or giant slalom trail “Bukovel” has special slopes and our instructors, participants of Olympic Games, mark the trail for different competitions depending upon the complexity level and other criteria.
- To improve the work of ski school a person should have lots of special knowledge. Where do you study for that purpose?
- Over six years ago we started developing our ski school to the European level and our first source of information was Internet. We studied European and world experience of the best ski resorts. Of course, after analyzing all the information we adapted experience of the best world ski schools to practically apply in our Bukovel School.
– After celebrating you 11-th anniversary what are your plans for the second decade of ski school development. What will the mail streams of your growth be?
– We have already pointed out two main trends. For our ski school cooperation with high schools and colleges of Ivano-Frankivsk region with physical education as their specialty is objective number one. We’ve signed the contract for free-of-charge training of their students in ski resort “Bukovel” as ski instructors and thus they will have the opportunity to practice their theoretical knowledge right after classes. We will continue and extend our cooperation to train the qualified and highly educated instructors from our region in high schools; as for the students it’s also a great benefit as they have the chance to get the second qualification additionally to their main one, get jobs and earn money wile they are still in high school. And, of course, our second main objective is preparatory works for Olympic Games. Here we have lots of things to do: training of new sportsmen, construction of new facilities, training of the staff; but we strive to improve ourselves and work hard to reach the desired goals. The motto of the ski school “Learn and master!” represents our objectives the best. This rule is applied both to newcomers who had never tried skiing and experienced skiers and snowboarders who are able to master their skills constantly. This motto is created for our customers and serves as the motivation for the stuff to raise their professional level more and more.
Ski school celebrated its 11-th anniversary with a large company of friends. During the official part ski school administration awarded the most conscientious workers with letters of merit and presents. The show program started with the performance of well-known Dzidzyo.
Olexandr Shevchenko, director of ski resort “Bukovel”, also congratulated the personnel of ski school. “Ski school “Bukovel” developed quite dynamically during last 11 years. I remember how everything started. One of the first our instructors was the participant of Olympic Games Yuliya Klyukova, in some time other professional trainers joined her. Now the two general managers of the school are two Andriys – Bakay and Pilleroa. They create mass events and promote the school growth. Ski school is the structural unit of ski resort “Bukovel”, which grows the most rapidly and the award of the international competition “Choice of the Year” earned in 2011 is the best proof of this fact. It means the school management chose the correct way of development. We provide the decent level of ski classes and our customers start or continue mastering their skills thanks to our ski school. Thus we increase the level of services provided by ski resort “Bukovel”. For the next decade I wish you never slow down the growth rate and increase the level of professional skills proportionally to the number of customers”, - Olexandr Shevchenko said.
During all its work history Ski and Snowboard School “Bukovel” participated in various projects oriented to development of national culture and popularization of healthy lifestyle, and this is the main prospective line of active social position of our ski school.
